About Andrew

My first experience of wireless phone charging was over ten years ago in 2009 with the Palm Pre and its Touchstone charger, which doubled up as a desk stand, tilting the phone at just the right angle. After the annoyances of multiple charger connectors, the simplicity of wireless charging was a revelation, even though Palm’s implementation had a few quirks. Wireless charging and the Touchstones were a feature of the Palm line-up right up until HP threw it all in the bin in 2011.

Joining Google’s Nexus series, my next phone with wireless charging was the Nexus 4 in 2013, which really was a beautiful device with an amazing glass back that shimmered in the light…it was lovely. On the Nexus 4, the wireless charging conformed to the Qi standard which was already looking to be the frontrunner in the wireless charging wars. To keep the Nexus 4 charged, I bought a Zens wireless charger and was sent a Mugenizer N11 wireless charging battery pack to review. The old reviews are still up on GNC for your enjoyment. Both chargers supported the Qi standard by Wireless Power Consortium. Apparently Qi is pronounced “chee” and comes from the Chinese word that translatesas “air” and figuratively as “material energy”, “life force”, or “energy flow” (Wikipedia).

Sadly, after three affordable Nexus devices, Google went all up market with the Nexus 5 and I jumped ship to OnePlus who had this strange invite-only sales strategy for their new One smartphone, but, hey, it worked.

I’ve been a OnePlus owner ever since then, but I’ve had to wait over five years for OnePlus to build wireless charging into the new 8 Pro. Being OnePlus, the 8 Pro has its own fast charging standard, but it still supports the underlying Qi standard. As a result, and somewhat amazingly, the Qi chargers from 2013 for the Nexus 4 still work.. Yes, their power output of 5 W is significantly less than the 30 W the OnePlus can take, but if I’m dropping the 8 Pro on the Zens pad for an overnight charge it doesn’t really matter.

Too often technology becomes obsolete in a few years so it’s encouraging to see that wireless chargers from six or seven years ago still work, and all credit should go to the Wireless Power Consortium and the Qi standard.

Although many of us still remain in lockdown, there’s light at the end of the pandemic tunnel with a number of countries now easing the restrictions. Painful as it has been for many, it’s also been positive in several respects. I spend more time with my children, there’s no hour long commute and I’ve been taking walks every day. Well, nearly every day…

And it looks like I’m not alone. LG Electronics commissioned research in UK to mark the launch of its latest portable and lightweight laptop range, LG gram, and found that

Just over a half of those questioned plan to continue with new habits like listening to podcasts, online fitness classes and regular walking once social distancing restrictions are lifted.

Two-fifths feel these new habits are better for their wellbeing.

More than one in four have found it easier to relax and keep a better routine.

Video calls have become a way of life and the main way to keep in touch with friends and family. In addition to calling for a chat, 25% have celebrated a birthday, 20% have taken part in a pub quiz and 7% have been to a stag or hen do. Frankly, I’d be asking for a do-over when things are more normal…

The study showed that the average person was spending nearly three hours per week on video calls, with half the nation (48%) expecting to continue with video calls after the lock down is finished. I guess what this shows was how much people felt that video calls were either unnecessary or difficult to do, but once people saw how easy the calls were and got past the initial awkwardness, it’s become ordinary. Thanks Zoom.

The poll of 2,000 conducted by OnePoll showed how integral technology is to our lives with laptops (54%), TV (57%) and mobile phones (64%) playing a key role for work and entertainment during the lockdown, allowing us to continue watching our favourite TV shows (51%), follow at-home workouts (19%), and learn a new skill or language (16%). If you include becoming a home school teacher as “learning a new skill”, then it’s three out of three for me.

When it comes to working-from-home this is where I think we will see lasting change. After experiencing working-from-home many will not want to return to long commutes in crowded trains or long traffic jams with the commensurate savings in fares or fuel. A quarter of the people (25%) questioned agreed that they planned on working from home more often after offices reopen. When asked what their ideal space to work from would be in the future, home was the most popular answer (30%) followed by a fixed office (23%) and then outside space (9%).

Hanju Kim, IT Product Director, LG UK said: “It’s both encouraging and uplifting to see some of the positive things coming out of this challenging period. The fact that many people are forming productive and healthy new habits is testament to the nation’s ability to adjust. The nation is working from home and has an appetite to continue working flexibly even after offices reopen. A big part of this can be attributed to technology keeping us connected.”

And so to the product launch….the 2020 range of LG gram laptops is available in the UK now coming in 14” (from £1,199.99), 15” (from £1,299.99) and 17” (from £1,449.99) sizes, featuring a 10th Generation Intel Core processor with Iris Plus graphics and up to 24GB of dual-channel DDR4 memory. With the 14” model weighing under 1 kg and the 15” & 17” models allowing up to 17 hours of battery life, the 2020 range sets a new standard for portable computing. Available from all good UK retailers – Amazon, PC World, Argos and Costco.

Battle Royale remains a tremendously popular segment of mobile gaming but these fast-paced action games need speedy systems to make them shine. Consequently, it’s no great surprise that OnePlus has partnered with Epic Games to create a new mobile experience for owners of the OnePlus 8 series of phones when it comes to playing Fortnite.

With the rollout currently underway, OnePlus 8 series devices are the first smartphones able to run Fortnite on the Unreal Engine at 90 fps, which is the fastest frame rate ever available for Fortnite on a smartphone and faster than some consoles can manage.

“OnePlus and Epic Games have created one of the best Fortnite experiences ever on a smartphone. The OnePlus 8 Series delivers a smooth, high framerate Fortnite gameplay experience – that even current generation console game systems can’t match,” said Pete Lau, Founder & CEO of OnePlus. “OnePlus creates the best devices for mobile gaming through our industry leading display, speedy performance, and overall user experience designed with power-users in mind.”

And this isn’t just about making the app “run a bit faster”. It took months of development to bring 90 fps to the OnePlus 8 phones even with the Snapdragon 865 and FluidDisplay. To make life easier for users, Fortnite will be made available through OnePlus’ “Game Space” application for a one-touch easy installation of the Epic Games app.

The rollout is starting in India with world-wide availability soon.

Owners of previous generation OnePlus 7 and 7T series phones will still be able to play Fortnite but sadly only at 60 fps. My personal experience is that even at 60 fps, the OnePlus phones play these games pretty well.

The lockdown might be easing in your country, but it doesn’t look like working from home is going to go away anytime soon: VPNs, Office 365, Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google Meet are all the new norms for the working day. With all the family at home, flat surfaces are at a premium and the kitchen table is now my office, though the view from my webcam is a less-than-professional untidy pile of cookery books, mismatched placemats and unfinished school homework. Unlike Satya Nadella of Microsoft, I don’t have anyone to dress the background.

Fortunately, there are now loads of fun backgrounds that can be inserted into videoconferencing to hide the clutter. Over the past few days Nintendo, Lego, Studio Ghibli and Star Wars have all dropped suitable images, and don’t forget Disney Pixar has been busy too. Even if you aren’t chatting over the interweb, the images are great desktop backgrounds too.

Click through on the links to see more as there are many additional images on the web sites.

Xiaomi have certainly been busy in the past few weeks, releasing updated versions across its product line – Redmi, Mi and now Poco, with the release of the F2 Pro. It’s a replacement for the Pocophone F1 and is now just branded Poco, which is a definite improvement over something that sounds like Pokemon. Having said that, this is not a brand new phone as the F2 is a variant of the Redmi K30 Pro. Whatever the label, this is is Xiaomi’s “flagship killer” and on paper, it’s definitely a worthy contender in the not-ridiculously-expensive-but-well-specced section. Let’s work round the details.

Looking at the phone, there’s a 6.67″ 2400 x 1080 FHD+ AMOLED “Ultimate Full Screen Display”. Unlike many high-end phones, this screen seems to be flat without a curved edge which might be seen as a good thing by some people. It’s an HDR10+ screen with a contrast ratio of 5 million to 1 and there’s an in-screen fingerprint sensor behind the Gorilla Glass. Physically the phone is 163.3 mm x 75.4 mm x 8.9 mm and weighs in at 218 g. It comes four colours – Cyber Grey, Electric Purple, Phantom White, Neon Blue.

Round the back, there are four cameras arranged on a disk. The main shooter is a 64 MP camera with a Sony IMX686 sensor. Second, there’s a 13 MP ultra wide-angle camera with a 123° field of view. Next is a 5 MP telemacro camera that can focus down to just a few centimetres and finally there’s a 2 MP depth sensor camera for when you want some bokeh. Round the front, there’s a selfie camera which pops up from the top of the phone. It’s a 20 MP sensor.

Inside there’s a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 with a Kryo 585 CPU and an Adreno 650 GPU plus support for 5G and WiFi 6. At this point, it’s worth mentioning that there are two versions of the F2 available, one with 6 GB RAM and 128 GB storage and another with 8 GB and 256 GB. Oddly, the 6 GB version is LPDDR4X, whereas the 8 GB one is LPDDR5. There are dual SIMs but only one can be 5G (as I understand the specs).

Powering the F2 Pro is 4,700mAh battery with 30W fast charging via USB C. There’s no wireless charging here, but 30 mins boosts the phone from 0 to 64%, and you’ll get 100% in just over an hour.

Other features include an IR blaster (kind of a Xiaomi feature) and fan-favourite, a 3.5 mm headphone jack.

Price-wise the Poco F2 Pro comes in at €499/$499 for the 6GB/128GB version and €599/$599 for the 8GB/256GB storage version. The phone will be available in regions as the summer progresses but if you can’t wait, the phone is already available from GearBest.

Another week, another phone launch and it’s LG‘s turn with the new LG Velvet. For those keeping count, the Velvet is really the next iteration of the G8, so think of the Velvet as the G9, though it’s not quite as high-end as might be expected from the G-range. That’s not to say it doesn’t have a couple of tricks up its sleeve. Let’s take a look.

From the front, the Velvet looks like most of today’s smartphones: 6.8-inch 1080 x 2460 OLED screen with a 20.5:9 aspect ratio. No real surprises there, but round the back it’s a little bit different. Instead of a dark cluster of lenses, the Velvet has a raindrop effect, with a larger lens at the top, two smaller lenses below and a flash at the bottom, all spaced out . It’s a good look – check the picture. The cameras themselves are a 48 MP main sensor, an 8 MP ultra-wide camera and a 5 MP depth sensor. It’s a 16 MP selfie shooter on the front. As expected for a phone of this calibre, there’s an in-display fingerprint scanner.

Driving the smartphone is a Snapdragon 765G chipset with 5G support. There’s 8 GB of RAM, 128 GB of storage and a microSD card slot which is always a welcome addition. The 765G might not be top of the range but it’s a strong performer and most people will find it very acceptable.

Keeping the juice flowing is a 4,300 mAh battery, and the Velvet offers both wired fast charging and 10 W wireless charging. I imagine that battery will keep the phone going for over a day. In terms of other features, the Velvet has IP68 rating for dust and water ingress, and there’s a 3.5 mm audio socket for the audio fans.

And for the Velvet’s party tricks…to start with there’s support for LG’s dual screen accessory, which I think is a great idea to increase screen real estate without the risks of a folding screen. But in addition to the dual screen, the Velvet also supports a stylus pen for fine editing and control. That’s something that I’ve only heard of on tablets and it’ll be interesting to see it in action on a phone. It’ll be even more interesting if the dual screen supports the pen too.

For now, the Velvet is only available in South Korea but an announcement is expected in mid-May regarding the rest of the world. Price-wise, it’s going to be ₩899,800 in S Korea, which is around US$730.

In addition to the Redmi Note 9 and 9 Pro announced last week, Xiaomi also unveiled the Mi Note 10 Lite. Based on the Mi Note 10 from last year which offers a whopping 108 MP rear camera, the Lite edition reduces the specs in few places to make the phone a little bit more affordable while still looking premium. As the Note 10 itself starts at GB£459, it’s definitely in upper mid-range territory, so it will be interesting to see what the Mi Note 10 Lite offers at a lower price point. Let’s take a look.

The Mi Note 10 Lite looks great with Gorilla Glass on both the front and the back of the phone. The display features a 6.47″ curved AMOLED FHD+ (2340 x 1080) screen on the front, with a tear drop 16 MP camera at the centre top. It’s a 19.5:9 aspect ratio display with HDR10. On the rear, there’s a quad camera setup, with cameras vertically aligned on the left-hand side. The main lens features a 65 MP wide-angle camera and is complemented by an 8 MP ultra wide-angle camera, a 5 MP depth sensor and a 2 MP macro camera. This is a very similar camera array to the Redmi Note 9 Pro.

Powering the 10 Lite is the same chipset as its full fat brother, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G. This consists of a Kryo 470 octa-core 2.3 GHz CPU paired with an Adreno 618 CPU and X15 LTE modem. When it comes to RAM and storage, there are three combinations available – 6 GB+64 GB, 6 GB+128 GB, 8 GB+128 GB. It’s not clear whether there’s a link between memory configuration and available colours.

From the specs, it doesn’t look like there’s a memory card expansion slot which is disappointing. There’s a 5,260 mAh battery with 30W fast charge via a USB C port. That’ll charge to 50% from 0% in 30 mins or less, which is handy, although Xiaomi reckon on 2 days-worth of use from a full charge.

As expected at this price point, it’s 4G only, though it does take a pair of SIMs. There’s Bluetooth 5.0 and a 3.5 mm headphone socket, and unusually an IR remote which is good for controlling TVs and other AV gear.

Pricewise, the Mi Note 10 Lite starts at 349 € (euros) for the base model, which is a considerable saving over the big brother, so if you want a premium-looking phone for not much money, check it out. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the Note 10 is coming to the UK any time soon, but the rest of the world can expect it to land in mid-May.